Hironah has enough to worry about—the mysterious and untimely death of her adopted father, her cousin’s involvement in a gang, her best friend’s tendency toward self-destruction, the Ghost Clan and its’ violent henchmen . . . She doesn’t feel the need to worry about the Emperor of Diasminion. Yes, he’s her uncle, but he has plenty of people to help him, doesn’t he? It isn’t until Meena, House of Delving, asks her to travel from the small coastal city of Nira to the capitol that Hironah begins to suspect that her problems have an even greater depth, perhaps even down to Pandemonium itself. The Dark Oath is the second of the Diasminian Chronicles. It continues from Encircle the Sun, though it is not necessary to have read Encircle to follow this book. It does, however, spoil some plot-lines from Encircle the Sun.